Gilbert Waley Brief Lineage History
Sometime before the Civil War in the United States, a French General by the name of le Gard was informed that he and his family were targeted for assassination. Keenly aware of the instability of the French nation, the unrest of the people of the time, the regular executions and murders of high ranking people in that country, he took the information seriously. He lost no time in finding a home for his two boys and apprenticed them to Captain Whaley who piloted a whaling ship out of the Mediterranean Sea.
One boy left the ship and traveled to New York. The other, Gilbert le Gard was adopted by Captain Whaley and grew up to captain his own whaling ship. He moved to America and stationed himself out of Mystic, Connecticut. He was a formidable character at six feet, eight inches tall. When he took his own ship, he changed the spelling of his surname to "Waley" because, he said, "I am not going to be called 'Whaley the Whaler.'" Captain Gilbert Waley: the French man with the English name. This man is my grandfather's grandfather.
The town of Mystic, which is an historical fishing and shipping port, is now a museum town for tall ships, which include the old whaling vessels. William Colby Downing Waley was born to Gilbert and his wife (who was a Whipple) in this town one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This is interesting because William would eventually marry Ida Evelyn Congdon, also a direct descendant of William Whipple, one of the signers of that document from New Hampshire.
Ida Congdon, who was born in Windsor, Ontario, was married once before and had a son when she married William Waley, who was now an upholsterer. Together, they had six more sons: Gilbert, George, Toby (who died at birth, or shortly thereafter), Melvin, Lawrence and Marvin. When Marvin was born, William was forty-five and Ida was thirty-five. She left William and the boys when Marvin was three.
Gilbert, the oldest brother was born 17 Feb 1908 and passed away 03 Apr 1988. As of this revision (26 Oct 2007), Marvin, the youngest of the brothers, is still alive. He was born 04 Sep 1921. He is married to Janice.
Years before, William had left Mystic at the age of sixteen and hitchhiked to the west coast. He moved several times up and down the coast between Seattle and Oakland, and he lived for a time with the Indians (Native Americans), before settling in the Seattle area with his family. When Ida left him in 1924, she returned to Oakland and worked at various jobs including waitressing and cab driving. Shortly thereafter, William moved back to Oakland for a time and raised the five boys. Neither William nor Ida ever married again.
During those days in Oakland, he was a frequent associate of Jack London, the famous author, at JM Heinold's First and Last Chance Bar. Later, moving back to Tacoma, he opened up the Goos Bay Bedding and Upholstery Company, subtitled the "Lounge and Mattress Factory." Judging by the photographs, the building, which was new at the time, appeared to be approximately twenty-four feet wide and about fifty feet long. Not a large building by any means, but large enough for three upholsterers to produce their wares.
The eldest of his sons, Gilbert, who was my grandfather, carried on the trade of upholsterer. I remember as a young child visiting his shop across from Greenlake in Seattle. That shop was not opened long before moving to the Port of Tacoma, just outside Fife, Washington. Here, he carried on his trade until he closed his shop to retire. The last few decades of his work was almost entirely committed to his contracts with the Sabre Craft and Bell Boy boat manufacturers; his shop made all the seats for those two lines of boats.
Gilbert Leslie Waley married Esmeralda Effemina Ahlers on 27 August 1931. She was seventeen; he was twenty-four. Their first child was Marian, my mother. They had two other children, Loren and Sandra. Loren passed away in 1996; he pulled over to the side of the road to take a nap and never woke up. That was the day before Independence Day and three weeks and a day before his sixty-third birthday. He was my favorite uncle. Grandma Waley would not talk about or use her real name until after Gilbert passed away. Until then, everybody called her "Babe." Esmeralda Waley (Ahlers) was born 05 Mar 1914 and passed away 06 May 1999.
I remember as a young child, going to my grandfather's shop. He gave me scraps of wood and nails. I would make things from the scrap and scoot around on the dollies. I guess it stands to reason I grew up to build houses and drive trucks. The smell of the pulp mills at the Port permeated the air and it is a smell that I came to associate with good times at Grandma and Grandpa's. Other good memories were '56 Ford pickups and listening to worried conversations about Kruschev over lunch at the diner.
Marian Evelyn Waley married Giles James Isaacson in 1950. They lived in Alaska while he was stationed at a radar base during his service in the Air Force. Then they settled in the Seattle area. They have eight children: Theodora, Dean (that's me), Lynette, Douglas, Mary, Darrin (who changed his name to Reid), Lisa (who changed her name to Renee) and Christina (whom I have called Mona almost since she was born). Dean's first wife was a Congdon - never knowing there were relations in the family.
Thus is the lineage of Gilbert Waley (le Gard), escaping death in France to surviving in America - and the story is not over.